DesignAlabama Helping Troy Envision New Chapter For Academy Street High School

By Michael Sznajderman

On a drizzly afternoon, a small group of architects, designers, and planners, led by officials from the city of Troy, took their first steps inside the long-closed Academy Street High School, near downtown. Very quickly, they began to see something far beyond the empty gymnasium and the dusty equipment and supplies stacked in the abandoned hallways. They saw – opportunity.

“It’s a great building. It’s got great structure, great bones,” said Brandon Bias, a regional and community planner with the Mobile office of Goodwyn Mills and Cawood Inc., an architecture and engineering firm.

Bias serves on the board of DesignAlabama, a Montgomery nonprofit that supports communities through education and projects that advance community planning and design., Earlier this month, Bias was among the volunteer design experts who descended on Troy for the weekend through an initiative called DesignPlace. During the workshop, they met with local citizens and community leaders, toured the old school and started sketching – that is, literally sketching – ideas for new and creative uses for the old school and its extensive grounds.

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